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kindled by religious persecution; and where it does not cause an oper revolt,, it is sure to diffuse an angry ferment, and to engender hypo-, crisy, which, by gradually undermining principle, may prove more destructive than the bitterest hostile contention. And so far as re ligion is made a tool for political purposes, the same, or other con. sequences no less mischievous, may be expected to follow.'

On the topic of subscription to articles of faith, Mr. Bates evinces considerable liberality. In the room of the present subscriptions, he purposes to substitute these Formula:

"I believe that the holy scriptures, as they are commonly received among protestants, contain all things necessary to salvation; so that, whatsoever is not read therein, nor proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. And I declare my sincere intention, seriously to study the sacred scriptures, and to instruct the people in the same, according to my best abilities."

Should the question respect an admission to minister in the church of England in particular, why might not the following, or some similar declaration, be thought satisfactory? "I am persuaded that the doctrine of the church of England is so pure and orthodox, - that whosoever believes it, and lives according to it, shall be saved; and that there is no error in it, which may necessitate any man to dis turb the peace, or renounce the communion of it." When Bishop Saunderson, who was a good man, and a skilful casuist, was con, sulted upon this formula by some divines who proposed it, as one to which they were willing to agree, he answered, "I never subscribed in any other sense myself." Or why might not Chillingworth's form of subscription be admitted, as expressed in these words? "I do verily believe the church of England a true member of the church (universal); that she wants nothing necessary to salvation, and holds nothing repugnant to it." Either of these forms might be thought sufficiently high for any church that makes no claim to infallibility, and might help to relieve the scruples of some wise and good men.'

We recommend to general perusal the whole of this section, on the most effectual methods by which an established church may support herself under a complete toleration,' and which thus closes:

A national church, formed according to the above rules-in her doctrine sound and evangelical, equally remote from a dry heathen morality and a wild enthusiasm, from Pharisaic confidence and An. tinomian presumption; in her instruction of children familiar and catechetical ;-in her public teaching, plain and expository ;-in her worship, pure and devotional;-in her discipline, strict without ri gourin her ministers, exhibiting her pastoral care, as well as her aptitude to teach :-in her pretensions, reserved and modest ;-in her conduct towards other churches, candid and liberal;--and, in the last place, in her terms of admission to her communion, moderate without laxity; neither so narrow as to make it difficult for wise and good

men

men to enter without some wound to their conscience, nor so wide, as to allow an easy ingress to the profane and the profligate. - A church that bears these characters, and answers to this description, can have nothing to fear from the most complete toleration; she would have few separatists from her communion, at least, few of such as held the faith in a pure conscience; and as to the conventicles of heresy and schism, they would have no other effect, than to draw off those noxious humours and inflammable spirits, which, if retained, would only have served to corrupt her purity, or disturb her peace.'

Though we do not concur with all the principles of the present volume, we admit that its tendency is on the whole excellent. The points on which we do not coincide with the author are chiefly speculative; and on those which are practical we seldom have occasion to differ from him. If his creed embraces articles which we think the scriptures do not sanction, and his notions be more rigid than those which that code in our opinion inculcates, we are fully persuaded of his sincerity, and are confident that he principally cherishes them because he is satisfied that they elevate and meliorate our nature. Some of the political counsels here imparted, if taken detached from others, might be misconstrued and abused:. but, if the nature and effect of the whole be considered, every candid person will allow that they strongly tend to render men more patriotic citizens as well as loyal and dutiful subjects. The work strongly impresses the reader with a persuasion of the integrity and worth of the author.

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ART. IX. Poems written at Lanchester, by John Hodgson, Clerk. Crown 8vo. pp. 133. 4s. Boards. Longman and Co. 1807. this little volume, Mr. Hodgson's muse for the first time meets the public eye, and is devoted chiefly to descriptive poetry; a path to fame which has not of late been very successfully pursued, though Mr. H. cannot be said to have found it untrodden. Nevertheless, to the observing eye and susceptible soul of real genius, Nature presents herself in forms ever new and interesting, and we do not hesitate to rank Mr. H. among her true and favoured votaries.

His first and longest poem is intitled Woodlands,' which is the name of an estate situated near Lanchester in the County of Durham. Prior to 1779, this spot was a wild uncultivated heath: but, under the fostering care of the proprietor, Mr. White, it has assumed a very different appearance; and it is stated that this gentleman's improvements have obtained the gold medal of the society in the Adelphi ten times, and their silver medal once. To these respectable testimonials,

Mr.

Mr. White may now add the not less flattering tribute of the poem before us; in which his new creation is hailed in verse that ought to be as lasting as his Oaks.

Mr. Hodgson introduces his subject by representing himself as seeking relief from the tedium of a sleepless night, by sending forth his imagination' to take a survey of this now interesting spot; the former desolate appearance of which is characterized by these appropriate and well, selected features: Not thirty suns have yet, in annual round, Gone to yon starry pastures, where the goat Eternal habitation holds, and muffling up The face of morning with a lowering veil, Down from the gushing cat'racts of the sky Pours his dark torrent, since no hedge or tree, Nothing but heath, agrostis, hardy plant, And rush, delighting in the foulest swamps, Covered the spot, which now employs my song. It was a dreary scene, where oft at night

Th' unsteady glare, that mocks the traveller's eye,
Shot gleaming round.. Here sailed the hawk, and here
Screamed the shrill glead, and plied her stormy song
The curlew. Tenant of the poorest soils,
The tedious lapwing, too, her tumbling flights
Performed; and basking on the sunny banks,
The beauteous adder coiled his shining length.
Browsing on sapless heath, a shepherd's care,
By day a scanty maintenance procured;

And, as approaching twilight threw its shades
Of dimness o'er the world, in regular march,
Sought out the sheltering corner of some hill,
And, grouped together, lay in harmless sleep.
Here too, in Leo's sultry reign, and while
The hot and ruddy virgin ruled the year,
The toiling sportsman ranged. But now, no more
The curlew or the lapwing's voice is heard;

No bleating of a hungry flock at eve;

No roar of guns t'affright the jocund lark,

Or stop the blackbird's song: the fearful grouse
Have fled to hills, defying culture's art,

And rudely pushed into inclement skies.'

This description is succeeded by a very animated comparison:

And rushing now on fancy's airy mind,
Methinks I see fair Culture leading forth
The sons of Labour to these barren lands.
As on they move, Sterility alarmed,
Ia yelling terror, quits her heathy throne.

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And, as an eagle, when a shepherd tries
To scale its eyry and destroy its young,
Rises and plunges, with distracted baste,
The hungry demon rages, flies, and falls.
With hope and fear, alternately possessed,
She sails away, then reassumes her seat.
But see! 'tis done. The blazing faggot lights
Her purple glory, and she takes her way

To mountains, brushed by surlier winds, and where,
Associate with the Genius of the storm,

Midst clouds and naked rocks, she sits,
Like exil'd majesty, in sullen pride.'

The concluding line is, however, evidently borrowed from Mrs. Barbauld's beautiful metaphorical description of the planet Saturn, "in sullen majesty an exiled Queen," and this is not the only instance of imitation to be found in this poem. The double image, with which Mr. H. illustrates his position that contrast teaches us the worth of things,' is a close though spirited translation of the beginning of the second book of Lucretius. A few other resemblances, which we have traced, are probably accidental.

The subsequent description and apostrophe abound in elegance and pathos :

Now Flora, loveliest of the train of spring,

Her temples wreathed with many a blushing flower
And loose robe floating on the sunny light,
Calls out her children from the sleep of death.
The humble speedwells, with cerulian eye,
And deep-ting'd violet with fragrant breath,
Adorn the shade: scatter'd o'er ev'ry mead,
The golden spangles of the pilewort glow;
And, through the leafless woods, th' anemone,
And fair oxalis, like yon world of stars,
That croud the galaxy, serenely smile.

Meek offspring of the earth, your fragrance breathe
O'er hill and dale! In all your mingled hues,
Burst from your seeds and little folded buds !
O'er you, as well as man, th' Almighty's eye
Watches for ever; and the lily's bell

Is still as white, as beautiful, as sweet,
As in the morning, when the obedient earth
Heard the Creator's mandate, and ye sprang,
Seed-yielding herbs, tall trees, and grassy blades,
All-jocund into life. How many hours
Of sweet society I found with you,
When grief and sickness every evening drew
The wings of Misery above my head

And (hardiness may laugh) but I have thought,
'Twas cruelty to pluck you in the bloom

Of

Of life, and implicate your bleeding stems,
E'en though to make a garland for the brow
Of her I most admire. With you I claim
A mortal kindred; for like me to death
Obnoxious are you all.'

Many passages might be adduced, of nearly equal merit with the foregoing; particularly the personification of the winds, at p. 12, 13: the description of spring, cheerfulness, and pleasure, p. 13, 14; the apostrophe to spring, p. 17, to the sun p. 33, and to winter p. 45: but we cannot forbear to insert the highly finished picture of the plantations at Woodlands:

Spread, like a mantle, o'er yon sloping hills

The forest now appears. It feels the vernal lymph
Ascending its innumerable veins,

And pleased, its dappled liv'ry reassumes.
For commerce or for war in future days,
Of slow maturity, the sapling oak

Unfolds his princely honors; and the lime
Weds his young branches to the shady beech.
Clust'ring and dark, the Caledonian fir
Puts on a brighter hue. The lofty spruce,
That on Norwegian hills, by twilight seems
A sable pyramid of dizzy height,

Extends the branches of his gradual wheels,
And throws his length'ning spears into the sky.
The larch, fair native of the towering heights,
Whence storm-fed Po, impatient down the brows
Of Viso, comes to kiss the blooming flowers
Of Parma's pastures, like some beauteous maid
At Hymen's altar, bends with graceful boughs,
Its robe is bridal, set with dangling flowers,
Of which the low male affords a dust,
That, by the zephyr's ministerial hands,
Borne to the purple bride, with joy, insures
Fecundity. And trembling like a hart,
Entangled in a hunter's toil, the poplar shakes
His hoary tresses o'er the murm'ring brook.
Dark alders too, the many-leaved ash,
The supple osier, and the slender birch
Put on the vesture of the youthful year.”

While we admire the taste and sensibility which mark these extracts, we believe that Mr. H.'s acquaintance with men and manners is rather circumscribed; which we infer from the vague and inaccurate nature of his remarks on these subjects, contained in the concluding pages of the poem. This is a deficiency which time and study would no doubt in a great measure supply, but we are of opinion that Mr. H. is destined

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